The recruitment of 800 firemen in Jammu and Kashmir has come under the scanner following allegations of rampant corruption in the selection process.

A panel headed by J&K Additional Chief Secretary Home Raj Kumar Goel has been constituted to probe the alleged scam.

This is the fourth recruitment by the JK administration that has come under the scanner in the last six months. Three selection lists in Police, Finance Department and Junior Engineers have already been canceled after a probe by a panel headed by Goyal. The probe has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The agency has already arrested over a dozen people in the police recruitment case.

More than 14,000 candidates had appeared for the exam for 800 posts of firemen and drivers in the fire service department in October 2020.

“It is very shocking to see how the recruitment process has been conducted. The fireman recruitment exam appears to be even more complex than the police sub-inspector recruitment exam,” said an official as per the report.

The opposition has accused the administration of the Union Territory of presiding over corruption and scams in recruitments in the region.

“Back-to-back recruitment scams in Naya Kashmir exposed J&K administration’s false claims of zero corruption. They are playing with the future of our youth by being unbridled and fearless. The brazen manner in which corruption has tainted these processes is indicative of its policy of ruining the lives of the youth,” tweeted former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

National Conference leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also targeted the administration. “There are complaints against nine out of 10 recruitment lists. Then they inquire and cancel the selection lists. They (administration) are playing with the future of the youth,” said Omar Abdullah.

The National Conference leader said that it has been more than four years of direct central rule in Jammu and Kashmir but the government has not been able to stop scams in recruitment. Abdullah said, “If there was a transparent system, there would have been no need to interrogate.”

Last week, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court faulted the administration for awarding the contract to a tainted agency to conduct the exam for police sub-inspectors. The court said that the decision to award the contract to M/s Aptech Ltd – a blacklisted agency – was mala fide and the purpose of changing the conditions in the tender was to favor the private agency.

As per reports, the administration appealed against the decision and a division bench stayed the single bench order, allowing the examination but said the results cannot be declared till further orders.

The bench, in its order, referred to the involvement of M/s Aptech Ltd in malpractices in the recruitment of electricity department in Uttar Pradesh, police recruitment in Rajasthan and irrigation department in Assam.
Referring to the Delhi High Court order imposing a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the controversial agency, Justice Waseem Nergal in his judgment said: “I am in full agreement with the view taken by the Delhi High Court in a case titled M/s Aptech Ltd. ., supra that organizations resorting to or permitting malpractices at the institutional level must be kept at bay”.

A day later, a division bench of Justice Vinod Chatterjee Kaul and Justice Sindhu Sharma stayed the verdict.

In the last two years, one recruitment process after another has come under the scanner for alleged malpractices and corruption.

In June and July, recruitment exams for police sub-inspectors and junior engineers and finance accounts assistants were canceled following allegations of corruption and malpractice. According to CBI investigators, the posts of sub-inspectors were sold for Rs 20 to 30 lakh during the police recruitment exam. Overall, 1,200 candidates were selected for the post of Police Sub-Inspector, 1,300 were selected for Junior Engineer and around 1000 were selected as Finance Accounts Assistant.